Getting your photos from your phone, to your desktop editing software, and back again can be tricky and time-consuming. Luminar Neo’s new Share app is a lightweight, straightforward solution.
Luminar Share is a solution to the problem of getting finished photos out of your editing software and onto your phone to be shared on social media. With a couple of clicks you can send your edited image from Luminar Neo to your phone and share it on whatever platform you like. Let’s check out how it works.
Set up Luminar Share to send photos between your mobile and computer
Getting set up with Luminar Share has three basic steps:
- Install Luminar Neo on your computer.
- Download the Luminar Share app from your device’s app store.
- Scan the QR code in Luminar Neo with the app.
That’s it! The app is surprisingly lightweight and doesn’t require logging in to an account (which for me inevitably ends in a circle of password confusion and resetting … just me?) or any media to be synced. It does its job and that’s it: Luminar Share assists you in getting photos from phone to computer and visa versa. No frills, no fuss.
Connecting Luminar Neo to Luminar Share
In more detail, here’s how it works: Once the app is installed, hit the share button in Luminar Neo (top right corner). Click Connect to device. A QR code will appear on screen, which you scan with your phone.
Alternatively, you can get to the QR code by clicking the top left Luminar Neo logo, then go to File > Share > Luminar Share.
Make sure your device is connected to the same network as your computer to get the two connected. The app will give an error if not (like if your Wi-Fi is turned off). With my desktop on LAN and my phone on Wi-Fi, both on the same network, I was able to get them connected.
What can you do once you have connected to Luminar Share?
Once you have set up Luminar Share, you can Send photos to Luminar Neo or Mirror Luminar Neo.
Sending photos is self-explanatory: It allows you to choose a photo (or multiple photos) from your device’s media library and send it to Luminar Neo. The photo will open on desktop immediately, and can be found in your Luminar Share folder in the left sidebar.
On my PC, Luminar Neo auto-created a folder in Pictures called Luminar Share, and sorted the folders in reverse-dated folder (i.e. YYYY_MM_DD plus timestamp), which is a nice touch that makes for easy sorting and finding later.
Export to phone with the mirror Luminar Neo option
The other option, Mirror Luminar Neo, is essentially used for sending photos the other way, from computer to phone.
When you click Mirror Luminar Neo, you are prompted to open Luminar Neo and go to the Edit tab to start mirroring. When you do this, the photo appears on your phone screen, with all edits made live as you work. This is a great option if you want to edit photos with your client side-by-side, letting them view on a phone or tablet.
Once you are happy with the finished photo, click the share button on your device. Luminar Neo shows a quick progress bar as the photo exports, and the native sharing options for your device open. Done!
How does Share fit into your edit workflow?
Each time you want to use the Luminar Share app, you need to reconnect using the QR code. So far this has been seamless for me: I had trouble connecting the first time, because my phone had Wi-Fi turned off (remember, the devices have to be on the same network), but once I followed the prompts (properly) it worked.
The Share app is a lightweight solution. No bells and whistles, but effective in its simplicity. There is no waiting for things to upload and sync to the cloud before you can access them on the other device. No confusing options, just straight to the point: Get this photo from here to there so I can do something with it.
For some reasons, this is not working for me. Both Neo and Share are on the same WIFI network but when I scan the the QR code with my phone, I get the error message that Share can’t connect to Neo. Given what is going on in Ukraine, I’ll put this on the back burner, of course. The folks in Skylum have way more important problems to deal with.
God bless them
Luc
Hi Luc, I had that problem at first too. I tried again after restarting my phone and WiFi off/on on my phone, and then it worked. There are also troubleshooting steps you can try, from Skylum. Let me know how you go!
Not able to locate the t/s steps as the link is back to the main page. Is there a more detailed t/s link ?
My computer has an Ethernet connection to my router. I have not been able to sync Luminar Share with my computer, yet they are on the same network. Has anyone else experienced this?
Hi Timothy. I did at first too. That’s the same configuration I have – computer connected to router with Ethernet and phone on WiFi. When I restarted my phone and off/on my phone WiFi, it worked. There are troubleshooting steps here from Skylum as well you could try. Let us know how you go.
Share to Neo from iPhone not working…………the photo appears in the Share folder, but on the desktop it is too large to see except as a huge blur and there is no way it will resize to edit.